Thursday, December 9, 2004

About 80
grade 11 students from Rockway Mennonite Collegiate in
Kitchener and United Mennonite Educational Institute in Leamington
attended a peacebuilding event at Conrad Grebel University College on
Tuesday. "Entitled Peacebuilding: Involved in the
World but Not Overwhelmed by the World", the event gave students a chance
to concretely examine peace and to look at the theory of peacebuilding
with peace and conflict studies professors Lowell Ewert and Nathan
Funk. In an effort to
"Prevent, Resolve, and Contain", practical
examples were presented by Joel Klassen (a 1990 UW grad) of Christian
Peacemaker Teams and several students from UW's Engineers Without
Borders group (pictured).

Visitors praise clean campus, article says

"Neat is sweet and woe to those who dismiss its impact," writes
Bud Walker, UW's director of business operations, in an article
published in the latest newsletter from the
Keystone
Campaign.

He talks about tidiness (and how Yankee Stadium has banned
Crackerjack because it makes such a mess) and segues into a
tribute to the people who help keep UW's campus clean:
"In the classrooms, offices, dorms,
and facilities at UW the commitment to cleanliness is a standard for
others to envy. Our custodians, groundskeepers, and housekeepers keep
Waterloo at the head of the pack.

"And it is good that they do --
appearance of the campus is one of the top four reasons why students
choose a particular university. According to the research, campus
appearance is right up there next to academic reputation, success in
job placement, and the provision of a 'university environment'.

Maria Sousa of the custodial staff is one of the people pictured
with Walker's article in the Keystone newsletter. Also included are
David Thrower, Sherry Bell and Gabriel Moreira of the grounds
section, Elizabeth Breen, Christine Moraueski, Alexandra Oros
and Anna Gomes of housekeeping, and Joe Pereira of the custodial
section.

"Parents on tours are profuse in their praise of the appearance and
cleanliness of our many facilities. We all enjoy the quality workplace
that comes from that 'more than extra' attention given by devoted
cleaning staff.

"There are countless examples. There is the
groundskeeper who gingerly clears a safe path amidst an obstacle
course of students, cars, and drifting snow in the dead of winter.
There is the Village housekeeper who brings some home-made cookies and
personal encouragement for a homesick teen. She knows; she has kids of
her own. There is the custodian who empathizes as he cleans around
birthday or sympathy cards on an office shelf, dusts between cherished
pictures of family and friends, or vacuums around various evidentiary
objects of someone's frazzled day at work.

"Unbeknownst to many,
cleaning staff do sense the stresses of their daytime co-workers,
their trials and tribulations, their ups and downs -- and the cleaning
staff strive to do the things that make the workplace work well for
their fellow employees.

"There are so many to single out, but with 150 custodians, 50
housekeepers, and 25 groundskeepers, where does one start?
Well, how about this -- the next time you see a custodian, housekeeper,
or groundskeeper, single them out, say how grateful you are for what
they do, and see if they have a picture of their kids that you can
look at!"

Holocaust story; world leaders

Brought to the world's attention through Karen Levine's
award-winning CBC documentary and children's book, the story behind
"Hana's
Suitcase" will take centre stage today at the Humanities Theatre.

Hana's story first came to light in 2000 when the Tokyo Holocaust Education and
Resource Centre acquired her empty suitcase from the Auschwitz Museum. Motivated
by her students' interest in the owner of the suitcase, the centre's director,
Fumiko Ishioka, found her way to Hana's brother, a Toronto resident,
George Brady.

WHEN
AND WHERE

US visas: meeting for students going to the United States
for the winter term on co-op job or exchange and applying for J-1
visa for the first time, today at 9:30 (CDS sponsorship) or
4:30 (other sponsorship),
Tatham Centre room 2218, repeat of yesterday's session.

Brady, a Holocaust survivor, has become an international speaker dedicated to
preserving the memory of his sister by sharing the story behind
Hana's
Suitcase. He and Karen Levine will share the spotlight at today's
event, with school performances at 9:45 and 1:15 and a main evening
performance at 7:30. Admission is free.
The event is
sponsored by the Waterloo Region Holocaust Education Committee, with
support from Gary Levine and Debbie Eisenberg.

Earlier today,
the Centre for International Governance Innovation -- independent of
UW but with close ties -- has something special going on.
A news release gives some background:

"Prime Minister Paul Martin has been very vocal about his support for the
Leaders 20 initiative and its importance to the development of an
effective and efficient system of international governance. CIGI is
launching the manuscript of the forthcoming publication from the
United Nations University Press, A Leaders 20 Summit: Why,
How, Who, and When? This book is a collection of papers from
various conferences around the world, and is the first publication
exploring Martin's concept of a Leaders 20 Summit.

"The conferences, sponsored by CIGI and the Centre for Global Studies, are
part of a project designed to establish the relevancy of L-20 Summit
meetings." The book is edited by John English, CIGI director and a
UW history professor,
as well as Ramesh Thakur of the United Nations University in Tokyo and
Andy Cooper of CIGI.

More from the news release:
"L-20 meetings would serve as a forum for leaders from approximately
20 developed and developing countries to discuss select
global challenges and problems including, but not limited to,
infectious diseases, global warming and climate change,
terrorism and political violence, WMDs, UN reform, global poverty, and
access to safe drinking water. CIGI is presently running a conference
series to examine the future composition of the L-20, the impact on
existing international institutions, the best means to engage the
major powers, and the future role for civil society in the L-20.

"As part of the launch, CIGI has invited Dr. Colin Bradford, Visiting
Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., to deliver a
public lecture." Bradford will speak today on "Global Governance and
the G-20 in an Age of Cultural 'Difference'," starting at
5:30 at 57 Erb Street West. Everyone is welcome.

Notes on the first day of exams

Fall term exams are under way (they'll run through December 22) and then
comes the Christmas and New Year's break, for everybody except faculty
members who might still have exams to mark. Fall term grades will start
appearing on Quest, "unofficially", as soon as exam season is over, and
official grades will be posted January 21, the registrar's office says.
(That's for undergraduate students; for grad students, the date is
January 4.) By that time, many of this term's students will be away on
co-op jobs, but others will be back on campus -- and here's a reminder that
winter
term fees are due by December 17 if paid by cheque, December
30 if paid by bank transfer.

Two optometry faculty members are being honoured at the annual meeting of
the American Academy of Optometry, being held this week in Tampa.
John Flanagan will deliver the Glenn A. Fry Lecture and
Tony Cullen will receive the William Feinbloom Award.
The honour of delivering the Fry Lecture is awarded annually to a
distinguished scientist or clinician, in recognition of research
contributions.
Flanagan will deliver a lecture entitled "My Life Under Pressure and other
Facets of Glaucoma".
The William Feinbloom Award is presented annually to an
individual who has contributed to the enhancement of public eye care through
clinical excellence and
the clinical advancement of visual and optometric service.

The first annual UW
International Development Student Conference will be held on
Saturday, February 26, organizers have announced. The conference was
created by students and professors in the faculty of environmental studies
and the department of political science. The organizing group
now includes
students from across the university who have an
interest in international development.
It's the first year for the conference, but the organizing committee says it
will become
an annual event. "The growing number of student organizations
with a focus on international development supports the need for this
conference at UW. These organizations include Alternative Work
Experience, Engineers Without Borders, University of Waterloo
International Health Development Association, and Waterloo Model
United Nations." Steffanie Scott of the geography department
(sdscott@fes) has more information.

Here's a note of some interest from the engineering newsletter, signed
by Rishi Anand, electrical and computer engineering
student and chair of this year's Graduation Committee:
"The 2005 Engineering Graduation Committee is trying to put
together a cookbook which we hope to sell as a fundraising
item in the coming winter 2005 term. And we need help from all you
engineering alumni and faculty out there! If you could please send
any interesting recipes you have so that we can put them in this
book to ranand@uwaterloo.ca that would be great! I'm sure as
former UW engineers or current faculty members you've spent a lot of
time 'trying' to cook excellent dishes so we'd really
appreciate your recipes! The more recipes we have, the more
cookbooks we'll sell, and the more money we'll raise; which
will make our graduation that much better!"

An Arriscraft lecture in the architecture school, originally
announced for this evening, has been cancelled. . . .
The joint health and safety committee recently elected Gail Clarke
of housing as its "management co-chair" and Paula Zahra of graphics
as the "worker co-chair" for the next half-year. . . .
In addition to its daily Christmas buffet lunch, the University
Club had a dinner buffet last night and will repeat the event next
Wednesday. . . .